Quick cryptic No 683 by Joker
I don’t mind admitting that this took me 24 minutes this morning, so is far more difficult than usual, or my mind has been stolen by someone. It might also be due to the large proportion (60%) of...
View ArticleTLS Crossword 1144 by Talos - September 30, 2016
Some quite tricky stuff here and in a couple of cases it was a longish time before I heard the ka-ching. It's not that I find the Talos puzzles easier than the others but they are less likely to send...
View ArticleTIMES QUICK CRYPTIC NO 684 by Hurley Friday 21st October 2016
TIMES QUICK CRYPTIC NO 684 by HurleyFriday 21st October 2016“And every one of them words rang true…”The more blogging I do, the more I realize how difficult the setter’s art is. Consider the fantastic...
View ArticleTimes 26,549: Even Stevens
A puzzle on the EVE of the Times Crossword Championship wherein a suspiciously vast majority of the enumerations are EVEN? A lesser blogger might not discern a Nina in that, but I've been at this game...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26544 (15th Oct)
13:40 on a printout, but with one silly error. I put BUTTING IN at 19ac before I had any checkers (not that it would have made any difference), meaning to go back to it and check the wordplay later. Of...
View ArticleJumbo 1230
A puzzle of average difficulty but containing enough interesting vocab to entertain. I won't have easy access to the Internet from now until Tuesday afternoon but rest assured I will address any...
View ArticleMephisto 2929 - Tim Moorey
I found this one on the gentler end of the Mephisto spectrum - in most cases the first piece of wordplay that sprung to mind ended up being the correct approach to the answer - always good in a week...
View ArticleSunday Times 4716 by Dean Mayer
29:12. Another absolutely superb puzzle from Dean Mayer this week. I found it very tough, but a real delight to solve. As so often seems to be the case, I spent absolutely ages on my last few in....
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 685 by Teazel
I'm standing in for mohn2 this week. In response to overwhelming popular demand (well one person wrote to me) I am reinstating my practice of stating my QC solving times, but other bloggers remain free...
View ArticleTimes 26,551 - Sweets for my sweet, what the heck for my honey
Due to an unfortunate concurrence of events - not least my PC being on the blink and the time machine needing further time at the service centre to remove all traces of the use it was previously put to...
View ArticleChampionships 2016 chatter
I thought it might be nice to have a thread where folk can chat about Saturday's event without hijacking main puzzle threads and annoying those who weren't there and wouldn't have wanted to be. So here...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic Number 26552
I needed more than an hour for this one but as 60 minutes approached, when I might sometimes have decided to cut my losses, I was still confident that I could solve it without reference to aids and I...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 686 by Mara
13 minutes - some of which were taken revelling in some of the clue constructions. A big thank you to Mara for such entertainment. Once again I'm on the road so have little time. Please feel free to...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 687 by Marty
A real mixture of difficulties here; plenty went in without a scratch of the head, whilst others required significantly more thought (at least in parsing). For me, examples of the latter include 4ac,...
View ArticleTimes 26553
Not one of last Saturday's tormentors, no doubt they are to come; a middle of the road puzzle for midweek. If any of the usual suspects has a PDF of the nine competition puzzles, could he / she please...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 688 by Orpheus
This was a lovely crossword. Tricky in parts, with the SW and NE corners taking me past the 15 minute mark, but lots of smooth surface readings and satisfying clues to solve along the way. A few bits...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26554 - October 27, 2016. Une jolie puzzle avec many choses...
25 minutes for this one, an interminable time trying and failing to parse 18dn as befits a conscientious commentator. Apart from this and others in the Cornish corner, I found this easygoing with some...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 689 by Izetti
Today's puzzle is brought to us by Izetti, and took me a bit over seven minutes to complete. Would have been a minute quicker if not for a bad case of vertical dyslexia at 20dn, which persisted even...
View ArticleOctober 2016 Club Monthly Special - 20193
Solving Time: This took me a little over an hour in two sessions, so a bit longer than usual, for no obvious reason that I can see. For the second consecutive month the mighty Magoo got one wrong.....
View ArticleTLS Crossword 1145 — “1 Down” by Praxiteles - October 7, 2016
Right up until this point, I had not understood what the theme, "poetry" referenced and had actually already written a complaint that the poetry count was no higher than usual. While highlighting the...
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